L17-01

Book cover

	The Gleki's
	Crash-course in Lojban

The guide to the naturalistic logical language

Published 2015

Preface

This tutorial gives a gentle introduction to Lojban, a logical language. 17 lessons of this course will allow you to understand most of the Lojban you are likely to see in the online Lojban discussion groups or publications.

What is Lojban?

Lojban is a constructed language based on so called predicate logic which makes it kind of a bridge between different languages and cultures.

Whereas natural grown languages have complications in grammar rules, biases and restrictions Lojban is designed to free us from them thus encouraging other ways of thinking otherwise unreachable.

Therefore, it allows us to see the world brighter.

Why learn Lojban?

• Lojban is clean, simple, and at the same time powerful language. Why not start speaking it?
• Lojban speech allows you to say things shorter without unnecessary distracting details. For example, you don't have to always think of what tense (past, present or future) to use in a verb when it's already clear from context. When you need details you add them. But unlike other languages Lojban doesn't force you to do so.
• Lojban is for artists because Lojban has unprecedented tools for expressing tiny details of human emotions
• Lojban is for lovers of wisdom (philosophers, in the original sense)
• Lojban is for scientists that like all concepts to be put in a concise system.
• Lojban is the best tool for implementing machine automatic translation. Still it's a speakable language.
• Lastly, Lojban is also fun !

Lojban is going to change the way you look at verbal communication. Learning Lojban is much more than just learning it's words and grammar. Learning Lojban is more about understanding it. You will need to understand many things about the way languages work. If you are not a linguist, it will be new to you. If you are a linguist it'll strike you how different ideas and philosophies you familiar with can be directly uttered in the flow of normal speech.

Lojban will make you think about the ways you express ideas in words. Something that you learned and used every day but never tried to understand how it works.

If you are deciding which language to learn or whether to learn any at all, you need to define your goals. Being able to understand what is spoken or speak so that other speakers understand is a good reason to learn most other languages. Learning new ways of thinking and expression of thoughts is a good reason to learn Lojban.

Lojban is likely to be very different to the kinds of languages you are familiar with — which certainly include English. Learning Lojban may be easy or hard, depending on how well you understand the ideas behind it. There are not many words and rules that you need to learn to get into a basic level. You will get there rather quickly if you put a systemic effort. On the other hand, if you fail to understand some basic point, memorizing things will not help you much. In such cases don't hesitate to move on, and come back to it later. Likewise, some of the exercises are trickier than others (particularly the translation exercises at the end of each lesson). If you can't work out the answer to a particular question, feel free to skip it — but do look at the answer to the question, as there are often useful hints on Lojban usage in there. The answers to the exercises are at the end of each lesson.

Conventions used in this book.

Lojbanic text is always in bold.

Translations of Lojbanic sentences are in italic.

Explanations of the structure of text in Lojban is in such "square" letters.

Brackets are used to clarify the grammatical structure of Lojban in examples. [These brackets are not part of official Lojban orthography, and are included only for academic purposes].

Examples are indented. This is an example of case study sentence.

For more information on Lojban, please contact the Logical Language Group:

• e-mail: thelogicallanguagegroup@gmail.com
• online IRC chat: Web chat
• web-site: mw.lojban.org

This course is created by the author Gleki with the help of the Lojban community throughout year 2015. It is loosely based on the book Complete Lojban Grammar, tutorials Wave Lessons and Lojban For Beginners. Important note: this textbook teaches simplified and optimized dialect of Lojban called La Bangu.

Lesson 1. Language at a glance

Alphabet

The basic thing you need to know about Lojban is obviously the alphabet.

Lojban uses the Latin alphabet (vowels are colored).

a b c d e f g i j k l m n o p r s t u v x y z ' .

Most letters are pronounced like in English or Latin, but there are a few differences.

There are six vowels in Lojban.

a	as in father (not as in hat)
e	as in get
i	as in machine or (Italian) vino (not as in hit)
o	as in bold or more — not as in so (this should be a ‘pure' sound).
u	as in cool (not as in but)

These are pretty much the same as vowels in Italian or Spanish.

The sixth vowel, y sounds like both a in the word America. So it's kind of er or, in American English, uh. y is the sound that comes out when the mouth is completely relaxed (this sound is also called schwa in the language trade).

As for consonants

c	is pronounced as sh (like in shop).
g	always g as in gum, never g as in gem
j	like j in French bonjour or like s in pleasure or treasure.
x	like ch in Scottish loch or as in German Bach, Spanish Jose or Arabic Khaled. Try pronouncing ksss while keeping your tongue down and you get this sound.
'	like English h. So the apostrophe is regarded as a proper letter of Lojban and pronounced like an h. It can be found only between vowels. For example, u'i is pronounced as oohee (whereas ui is pronounced as ooh-eeh).
.	a full stop (period) is also regarded as a letter in Lojban. It's a short pause in speech to stop words running into each other. Actually any word starting with a vowel has a full stop placed in front of it. This helps prevent undesirable merging of two sequential words into one.

Lojban does not require any punctuation, separate words are used instead. You don't have to be very precise about Lojban pronunciation, because the sounds are distributed so that it is hard to mistake one sound for another. This means that rather than one ‘correct' pronunciation, there is a range of acceptable pronunciation — the general principle is that anything is OK so long as it doesn't sound too much like something else. For example, Lojban r can be pronounced like the r in English, Scottish or French.

Two things to be careful of, though, are pronouncing Lojban i and u like Standard British English hit and but (Northern English but is fine!). This is because non-Lojban vowels, particularly these two, are used to separate consonants by people who find them hard to say. For example, if you have problems spitting out the ml in mlatu (which means cat), you can say mɪlatu — where the ɪ is very short, but the final i has to be long.

The simplest sentences

Now let's turn to constructing our first sentences in Lojban.

Of course one of your first thoughts might be "Where are nouns and verbs in Lojban?"

The word

mlatu

is roughly translated as cat but it's more correctly to say that it means

to be a cat

It's a verb. Two more verbs are

pinxe

to drink

and

ladru

which is roughly translated as milk. But it's rather

to be a quantity of milk

It might sound strange how cat and milk can be verbs but in fact this makes Lojban very simple.

Let's imagine we want to say A cat drinks milk.

To turn a verb into a noun we put a short word lo in front of it. And to show a verb we put the word cu in front of the verb.

lo mlatu

lo ladru

lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru

A cat drinks milk.

Remember that c is pronounced as sh.

So we turned mlatu and ladru into nouns. We can also say that lo creates a noun from a verb with roughly the meaning of one who does the action of the verb.

And using cu we show that the next word, i.e. pinxe will still be a verb.

Any verb can be turned into a noun. For example, lo pinxe will mean drinker.

Now let's talk about pronouns like I and you.

mi = I

do = you

ra = he, she or they

mi'ai = we

ti = this one, this object near me.

tu = that one, that object over there.

Like their English name hints, pronouns work like nouns by default. And they don't require lo in front of them.

mi pinxe

I drink.

do pinxe

You drink.

ti ladru

This is milk.

tu mlatu

That is a cat.

As you can see we can even omit cu after pronouns as we can clearly see the pronoun and the verb being separated.

As nouns and pronouns work exactly the same we'll always call them nouns later for brevity.

Unlike English we don't have to add the verb "is/are" to the sentence. Everything is already there: mlatu means to be a cat.

Compound verbs

Now let's talk about compound verbs.

tanru or compound verbs are a powerful tool that can give us richer verbs. You just string two verbs together. And the left part of such compound verb (called seltau in Lojban) adds a flavor to the right one (called tertau).

For example,

sutra

to be fast

sutra pinxe

to quickly drink, to drink fast.

Here the verb sutra adds an additional meaning as it is to the left of another verb. As you can see seltau are translated using adverbs.

We can put lo to the left of such compound verb getting a compound noun. Seltau in noun form are translated using adjectives or participles:

lo sutra pinxe

a quick drinker.

Now you know why there was cu after nouns in our example

lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru

A cat drinks milk.

Without cu it'd turn into lo mlatu pinxe … with the meaning a cat-like drinker whatever that could mean.

Compound verbs can contain more than two verbs. In this case the first verb modifies the second one, the second one modifies the third and so on:

lo sutra bajra mlatu

A quickly running cat

where as

lo sutra mlatu means

A quick cat

and

lo bajra mlatu means

A running cat

Numbers

Now let's talk about numbers.

Amazing but we haven't said yet how many of our cats are actually drinking milk. The sentence

lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru

A cat drinks milk.

is vague in this regard. It can be one cat or even 25 cats drinking milk. Any of such interpretations are possible.

lo simply turned a verb into a noun but now we might want to specify the number.

Let's add a number in front of lo.

pa means 1

re - 2

ci - 3

vo - 4

mu - 5

xa - 6

ze - 7

bi - 8

so - 9

no - 0 (zero).

ro - each, every.

za'u - more than one, plural number

So

pa lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru

A cat/one cat drinks milk.

For numbers consisting of several digits we just string those digits together.

re mu lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru

25 cats drink milk.

ro is also used to express the meaning of all.

ro lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru

Every cat drinks milk.

All cats drink milk.

 Yes, it's that simple.

Besides, we can say:

ci lo re mu mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru

Three out of 25 cats are drinking milk.

or

ro lo re mlatu cu pinxe

All of two cats are drinking (literally)

Both cats are drinking.

So we use lo as a separator in phrases with out of or similar.

To say just cats as opposed to a cat (one cat) we use the number za'u.

za'u lo mlatu cu pinxe

Cats are drinking.

whereas

pa lo mlatu cu pinxe is

A cat is drinking.

Events

Now let's talk about events and how we express them. The word nu transforms a verb into an event or a process.

pinxe

to drink

lo nu pinxe

drinking



dansu

to dance

lo nu dansu

dancing



jorne

to connect

lo nu jorne

connection



jimpe

to understand, to comprehend

lo nu jimpe

understanding, comprehension

 So lo nu corresponds to English -ing, -tion or -sion.

 As usual we can add to the verb normal words like nouns, pronouns. In fact nu allows us to create a full phrase after itself.

klama

to come

lo nu klama

coming

lo nu do klama

coming of you

Some verbs require using events instead of ordinary nouns. For example

gleki

to be happy (because of some event).

lo gleki

a happy one, a happy person



mi gleki lo nu do klama

I'm happy because you are coming.

Some words are events by themselves.

nicte

(some event) is a nighttime.

lo nicte

night, nighttime

This is where we can see bare nu (without lo).

lo nicte cu nu mi viska lo lunra

The night is when I see the Moon.

(The night is the event when I see the Moon).

where

viska

to see

lo lunra

the Moon

 We can combine such words with events together so no lo nu will be used.

lo cabna

present time, (an event) is at present.



lo cabna cu nicte

Now it's night. At present it's night.

Prepositions and tenses

Now let's talk about prepositions related to tense.

pu denotes past tense or before some event

ca denotes present tense or at the same time as some event

ba denotes future tense or after some event

 And now examples:

mi pinxe ca lo nu do klama

I drink while you are coming.

Yes, we need lo nu to insert a whole sentence after ca.

mi citka ba lo nu mi dansu

I eat after I dance.

 Now let's talk about tenses.

 English forces us to use certain tenses. You have to choose between

A cat drinks milk.

A cat has been drinking milk.

A cat drank milk.

A cat will have drunk milk.

and other similar choices.

However, in Lojban you can be as vague or as precise as you want.

Our sentence

lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru

A cat drinks milk.

in reality says nothing about when this event happens. Only the context can help us. In fact context is clear enough in most cases. But let's imagine that we need more precision. We just add more words.

It may be a surprise to you but those prepositions can be used as tenses as well!

The only difference is that we should just drop the noun after pu, ca, ba and they turn into tenses.

So

lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru ca

The cat drinks milk (at present).



lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru pu

The cat drank milk.



lo mlatu cu pinxe ba

The cat will drink milk.

We can also put them before the the main verb.

So we can get

lo mlatu ca pinxe lo ladru

A cat (at present) drinks milk.

 As you can see we replaced cu with ca as ca also clearly separates the previous noun from the verb.

 However, we shouldn't say pu lo mlatu as with a noun after it this pu will turn into a preposition. And it would mean before the cat (in time). So here we should use the word nu.

ba nu lo mlatu cu pinxe

The cat will drink.

So we can put the word nu when we want to indicate tense in the beginning of a sentence thus separating it from the noun coming next.

Here are three more prepositions (we'll use them only as tenses for now for simplicity).

ca'o — continuous tense

ba'o — perfect tense

ta'e — habitually

Now we can say even more precisely

lo mlatu ca ca'o pinxe lo ladru

A cat (at present) is drinking milk.

Here we get a very precise translation of an English sentence that has what is called Present Continuous tense in English.

There is also Present Simple tense that describes events that happen sometimes.

lo mlatu ca ta'e pinxe lo ladru

A cat (habitually, sometimes) drinks milk.

 For Perfect we use ba'o.

lo mlatu ca ba'o pinxe lo ladru

A cat has drunk milk.

Of course we could omit ca in this sentence (I'm sure that the context would be clear enough in most such cases).

We can use the same rules for describing the past using pu instead of ca or the future using ba.

We can combine tenses with and without phrases after them.

mi pu citka ba lo nu mi dansu

I ate after I danced.

 Note, that pu (past tense) is put only in the main phrase (mi pu citka).

 We shouldn't put it with dansu (unlike English) as mi dansu is viewed relative to mi pu citka so we already know that everything was in past.

 Let's take one more useful preposition.

ze'a

some (medium length of time), during, through some time.

sipna

to sleep

lo nicte

a nighttime



mi pu sipna ze'a lo nicte

I slept all night. I slept through the night.

Let's compare it with ca.

mi pu sipna ca lo nicte

I slept at night.

When using ze'a we are talking about the whole interval of what we describe.  Don't forget that nicte is an event so we don't need nu here.

Other prepositions

Other prepositions work the same way. 

fa'a

towards …, in the direction of ...

to'o

from …, from the direction of ...

bu'u

at ...(some place)

se ja'e

because ... (of something)

mi klama fa'a do to'o lo mlatu

I go to you from a cat.

 The interesting thing about those directional prepositions is that you can freely move fa'a and to'o with nouns after them around the sentence as you like without changing the meaning.

fa'a do mi ca klama to'o lo mlatu

Towards you I go from a cat.

to'o lo mlatu mi fa'a do ca klama

From a cat I (towards you) go.

 As you can see Lojban is very flexible.

 One thing is important.

 When using nu you create a separate phrase inside the big sentence. Be sure not to mix nouns and prepositions from different phrases and the big one. Here is an example:

plipe

to jump

lo mlatu cu plipe fa'a mi ca lo nu do klama

A cat jumps towards me when you come.

is the same as

lo mlatu cu plipe ca lo nu do klama vau fa'a mi

A cat jumps (when you come) towards me.

 We use vau after each phrase when we want to show it's border.

 However,

lo mlatu cu plipe ca lo nu do klama fa'a mi

A cat jumps (when you come towards me).

As you can see do klama fa'a mi is a phrase inside the big one. So fa'a mi is now inside it.

Now you, not the cat come towards me.

At the end of the sentence vau is never needed as it's already the right border.

Place structure

Lojban dictionaries present all verbs with x1, x2 etc. symbols as e.g.

prami

x1 loves x2

There is nothing strange in these x1, x2. They are called places and simply represent the order in which you have to add nouns. E.g.

mi prami do

I love you.

This also means that

x1 means to love and

x2 means to be a loved one.

The advantage of such style of definitions is that compared to English there is no need in many additional words as all participants of this love are in one definition.

We can also omit nouns making the sentence more vague:

prami do (literally loves you) means Someone loves you.

Alternatively you can replace unnecessary places with the word zo'e = something/someone.

zo'e prami do

Someone loves you.

which will mean the same as prami do.

The place structure of compound verbs is the same as the of the last verb word in it: ADD EXAMPLE!!!

More than two places

There might be more than two places. E.g.

pinxe

x1 drinks x2 from x3

mi pinxe lo ladru lo kabri

I drink milk from a cup.

lo kabri

a cup

In this case there are three places and if you want to exclude the second place in the middle you have to use zo'e:

mi pinxe zo'e lo kabri

I drink [something] from a cup.

If we omitted zo'e we'd get

mi pinxe lo kabri

I drink a cup.

which would make no sense.

Relative clauses

Now about relative clauses. Let's look at these two sentences.

1. The cat that is white is drinking milk.
2. The cat, which is white, is drinking milk.

In the first sentence the word "that" is essential to identifying the cat in question. Out of probably many cats we look only at those who are white. May be there is only one cat around that is white.

As for "which is white" from the second sentence it just provides additional information about the cat. It doesn't help us to identify cats. For example, this might happen when all the cats are white.

In Lojban we use poi for the first sentence and noi for the second sentence.

(The word blabi means to be white).

1. lo mlatu poi blabi cu pinxe lo ladru

   The cat that is white is drinking milk.

2. lo mlatu noi blabi cu pinxe lo ladru

   The cat, which is white, is drinking milk.

This poi blabi is a relative clause, a mini-sentence attached to the noun lo mlatu. It ends just before the next word cu.

So we actually additionally state in the sentence that lo mlatu cu blabi - the cat is white.

Let's have a more interesting example.

lo tricu = a tree

barda = to be big/large

klama = to go to something

lo tricu noi mi klama ke'a cu barda

A tree, to which I go, is big.

Note that word ke'a. It refers to the noun to which our relative clause is attached.

So literally our Lojbanic sentence sounds like

"A tree, such that I go to which, is big".

Note that we can always extract this relative clause and make it an independent sentence by replacing ke'a with the noun to which this relative clause was attached.

So this big sentence also mention in passing that mi klama lo tricu = I go to a tree.